Do Unto Others

The 70.3 Ironman in Galveston was hot and humid...very hot and humid. And monotonous. Four laps on the run course through Moody Gardens (and for those of you that remember, no sign of Emily for the entire run!) Anyway, it was tough..to keep moving through the hot, thick air and keep spinning those laps thru Moody and Schlitterbahn.

It was somewhere during the third lap that this fiesty, cute little blonde gal zipped up beside me through the crowded sidewalk course and said "Come on. Let's do this thing together." My immediate thought was that it sounded like a definite way to bonk. I didn't want any part of it. "Go ahead, girl," I said. You're killin it!" Well, wasn't too long before I had slipped back up to her, then her behind me then we swapped again and again...throughout the last 6 miles or so..till I lead her in.

She killed it, all right. And just about killed me. But it took me to a PR half ironman course time.

Well, fast forward about 4 weeks to Ironman Texas. You can imagine how I felt when on my second lap of the run trying not to bonk from 96 degrees and 99 percent humidity little Miss Vivacious cutsey blonde thing cruises to my side and says "let's go!"

%*&#"+#.bleep.

Not my game. I'm pretty notorious for running my own pace and not conforming to someone else's plan. "No way. You'll kill me. Go get it," I tell her. She then trotted up to a few tattooed IM jocks and happily chatted for the next several miles. Really??? I could barely breathe let alone want to chit chat. But it motivated me to keep moving and a few miles later we again swapped positions on the run course and I managed to pull out a Kona qualifying finish.

Well, again, fast forward about 4 weeks. I am at Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon to watch a friend at the sprint race. I am standing in the windy, morning sun on the peninsula of the park when I look up and am standing by a very outgoing, cute chit chatty blonde. "Hey, I think we ran together in Galveston and The Woodlands," she says. Wow. Our paths cross again.

"Are you doing the half tomorrow?" she asks me. I tell her and the guy she is with yes, without much reason other than getting my mojo back and start moving again after IMTx. She says, "Yeah, I missed qualifying for Kona by 3 minutes in The Woodlands. I'm here to try to qualify."

I think I just found a purpose for doing the event tomorrow. Go, Girl! I will do what I can for you!


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